Nowadays, knowledge and information are important.
In getting, interpreting,
processing, and learning the information, language skills like writing and reading are
needed from a person (Calzada Prado & Marzal Garcia, 2013). Certainly, the capability
of an individual to understand or comprehend texts in written and spoken languages
and having the ability to express concepts and thoughts are important in everyone’s
development and growth. The ability to acquire knowledge in different fields can be
achieved through communication and comprehension and by mastering some study
habits skills and having positive attitudes. In addition, an individual should cultivate
eagerness in learning new knowledge and in familiarizing with the target language
(Shippen et al., 2010) because the inability to understand or comprehend well is most
likely deprived of the information. The Philippines is considered to be a multilingual
country wherein there is more than one language is used by the people like Cebuano,
Tagalog, Hiligaynon, Waray, and many more. In order for the people to understand
each other most especially those who are coming from different regions, Filipino and
English are used as mediumsof communication.
Moreover, the Filipino language is considered to be the national language of the
country and this is also used as a medium of instruction in teaching some of the
subjects offered in public and private schools like Filipino, Araling Panlipunan and etc.
On other hand, those who are living in the Luzon area (one of the three major islands of
the country) don’t have problems using and comprehending Filipino. However, those
who are living in Visayas and Mindanao, have difficulty using and understanding the
language. In fact, there are more English users in the Visayas compared to Filipino.
According to the data from Social Weather Surveys (SWS) taken from the article written
by Mangahas (2016) of The Inquirer, 16 percent in the Visayas said that they made full
use of Filipino and 54 percent said that they could speak English. The result of the
survey simply indicates that Filipino is not practiced at home by the people in the
Visayas region which lead to poor comprehension of the said language.
In Asian countries, China is on top followed by Singapore in terms of reading
comprehension performance. On the other hand, the Philippines is the lowest among
Asian countries in reading comprehension according to the result of the Programme for
International Student Assessment (PISA, 2018) of the Organization for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD). The problem relating to reading comprehension in
the Philippines as shown in the PISA 2018 result is no anymore new. In 2007, the
Department of Education reported that 70% of the students have lower reading skills in
relation to their grade level. Moreover, according to anarticle inthe Philippine Star
(2011), Filipino doesn’t have enough reading skills and motivation. Moreover, it was
also mentioned in the study of Cabardo (2015), that the low performance of students on
the National Achievement Test was an indication of the low reading comprehension
skills of elementary and secondary students in the country.
Learning and acquiring the Filipino Language needs to have mastery of the
different macro-skills like listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Moreover, the most
significant academic skill among the macro-skills is reading. Despite the major role or
function of reading in learning, there are still students who have difficulties in reading.
This appears real even though the learners or students have enough knowledge about
the language. Rosalina (2018) identifies mental or psychological and emotional aspects
of human behavior as domains that affect language learning. Moreover, two key factors
that could have an impact in process of reading and comprehension are the text
variable learners’ variable. The learner variables are the techniques utilized by the
readers in comprehending the text like their prior knowledge, readiness or motivation,
self-esteem, sex, and personality. On the other hand, the text variables refer to the text
arrangement or organization, text features, and text content that may affect
comprehension. Recently, the significance of these aspects has been focused on by the
experts in the field of language learning due to its high or great impact on learning or
acquiring a foreign or a second language (Rosalina, 2019)
The researcher himself has experienced and witnessed the reading comprehension
problems of his students. Students have low performance in Filipino subject due to
students’ difficulty in comprehending the medium (Filipino language) used in the said
subject. Other factors might also hinder or affect their performance in the subject like
self-esteem, culture, and other external factors. Thus, this study aimed to determine and
analyze the level and correlation between reading comprehension in Filipino and self-
esteem Journal of Education Naresuan University